#msbuild — Public Fediverse posts

i think #cmake deserves serious recognition for making a high level abstraction over both Linux build systems, and MSVC + (!) #msbuild. i know this is one of the purposes of having a cross-platform meta-build system to begin with, but it's easy to underestimate the difficulty of getting it into a format that works with the Visual Studio toolchain. it seems waaaayyyy more involved than just getting a Clang + #Ninja project to compile on Windows.

with MSBuild, there is so much undocumented behavior to reverse engineer, concepts that don't cleanly match systems in the Makefile family. MSBuild is actually more of a declarative format with complex logic encoded in the vendored property and target files, rather than just having a self-contained set of rules. despite this, CMake seems to maintain good parity with MSBuild, e.g. with ARM64EC support

From the .NET blog...

In case you missed it earlier...

Analyze MSBuild Binary Logs with Copilot in VS Code
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/msbuild-binlog-analyzer-vscode/ #dotnet #AI #VisualStudioCode #binlog #builddiagnostics #BuildPerformance #GitHubCopilot #MCP #ModelContextProtocol #msbuild #VSCode

via @dotnet : Analyze MSBuild Binary Logs with Copilot in VS Code

https://ift.tt/7HjkrhP
#MSBuild #BinlogAnalyzer #VSCode #Copilot #GitHubCopilotChat #BinaryLogs #MSBuildLogs #CI_CD #BuildAnalysis #Performance #BuildTimeline #BuildOptimization #IncrementalBuild …

Analyze MSBuild Binary Logs with Copilot in VS Code
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/msbuild-binlog-analyzer-vscode/

#microsoft #NET #AI #Visual_Studio_Code #binlog #build_diagnostics #Build_Performance #GitHub_Copilot #MCP #Model_Context_Protocol #msbuild #VS_Code

From the .NET blog...

Analyze MSBuild Binary Logs with Copilot in VS Code
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/msbuild-binlog-analyzer-vscode/ #dotnet #AI #VisualStudioCode #binlog #builddiagnostics #BuildPerformance #GitHubCopilot #MCP #ModelContextProtocol #msbuild #VSCode

MSBuild binlog viewer downloads have fallen off the cliff since ~March:

https://msbuildlog.com/stats

My interpretation is that AI is solving MSBuild issues, as well as less and less people using MSBuild. Also hopefully modern MSBuild and SDK is more pit of success.

#msbuild #dotnet

Over at @InfoWorld I took a look at some of the new developer tooling for Windows that Microsoft announced back at #msbuild: support for UNIX coreutils in Windows and new ways to quickly set up and manage developer workstations.

https://www.infoworld.com/article/4188967/making-windows-a-developer-platform-again.html

via @dotnet : MCP Beyond the Chat Window: Build Diagnostics in CI

https://ift.tt/azRNoku
#mcp #binlog #ci #githubactions #dotnet #msbuild #diagnostics #binlogtools #buildfailureanalysis #prcomments #automation #aiassistance #continuousintegration #binlogserver #…

From the .NET blog...

In case you missed it earlier...

MCP Beyond the Chat Window: Build Diagnostics in CI
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/mcp-build-diagnostics-workflows/ #dotnet #AI #binlog #builddiagnostics #GitHubActions #GitHubCopilot #MCP #MicrosoftBinlogMCP #ModelContextProtocol #msbuild

MCP Beyond the Chat Window: Build Diagnostics in CI
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/mcp-build-diagnostics-workflows/

#microsoft #NET #AI #binlog #build_diagnostics #GitHub_Actions #GitHub_Copilot #MCP #Microsoft_Binlog_MCP #Model_Context_Protocol #msbuild

From the .NET blog...

MCP Beyond the Chat Window: Build Diagnostics in CI
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/mcp-build-diagnostics-workflows/ #dotnet #AI #binlog #builddiagnostics #GitHubActions #GitHubCopilot #MCP #MicrosoftBinlogMCP #ModelContextProtocol #msbuild

From the .NET blog...

In case you missed it earlier...

AI-Powered MSBuild Investigation with the Microsoft Binlog MCP Server
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/msbuild-binlog-mcp-server/ #dotnet #AI #binlog #builddiagnostics #GitHubCopilot #MCP #ModelContextProtocol #msbuild

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@tmeschter/116751973349195922

There's another option for getting information out of MSBuild that I didn't cover before because the thread was getting long: `-getTargetResult`.

In MSBuild a target can (optionally) return a set of items. This lets you treat it as a function, not just a "unit of work".

For example, you can run:
`dotnet build -getTargetResult:ResolveReferences`

and get
```
{
"TargetResults": {
"ResolveReferences": {
"Result": "Success",
"Items": [
{
"Identity": "C:\\Program Files\\dotnet\\packs\\Microsoft.NETCore.App.Ref\\10.0.8\\ref\\net10.0\\Microsoft.CSharp.dll",
"FileVersion": "10.0.826.23019",
...
},
{
"Identity": "C:\\Program Files\\dotnet\\packs\\Microsoft.NETCore.App.Ref\\10.0.8\\ref\\net10.0\\Microsoft.VisualBasic.Core.dll",
"FileVersion": "15.0.826.23019",
...
},
...
]
}
}
}
```
which is a list of all the references being passed to the C# compiler, along with a bunch of metadata on each.

Or you can run the "Build" target and get information about the outputs:
```
> dotnet build -getTargetResult:Build
{
"TargetResults": {
"Build": {
"Result": "Success",
"Items": [
{
"Identity": "C:\\Users\\me\\source\\repos\\TestConsole\\TestConsole\\bin\\Debug\\net10.0\\TestConsole.dll",
"ReferenceAssembly": "C:\\Users\\me\\source\\repos\\TestConsole\\TestConsole\\obj\\Debug\\net10.0\\ref\\TestConsole.dll",
"FullPath": "C:\\Users\\me\\source\\repos\\TestConsole\\TestConsole\\bin\\Debug\\net10.0\\TestConsole.dll",
...
}
]
}
}
}
```

So depending on the target that can be another option.

#msbuild #dotnet #csharp

via @dotnet : AI-Powered MSBuild Investigation with the Microsoft Binlog MCP Server

https://ift.tt/3rhFpL9
#AI #MSBuild #Binlog #MCP #MSBuildBinlog #BinlogMCPServer #AIWorkspace #CodeAssist #BuildDiagnostics #PerformanceAnalysis #BuildComparison #StructuredLogge…

From the .NET blog...

AI-Powered MSBuild Investigation with the Microsoft Binlog MCP Server
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/msbuild-binlog-mcp-server/ #dotnet #AI #binlog #builddiagnostics #GitHubCopilot #MCP #ModelContextProtocol #msbuild

AI-Powered MSBuild Investigation with the Microsoft Binlog MCP Server
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/msbuild-binlog-mcp-server/

#microsoft #NET #AI #binlog #build_diagnostics #GitHub_Copilot #MCP #Model_Context_Protocol #msbuild

So far we've just used `-getProperty` and `-getItem` to query the "evaluation" phase of MSBuild--basically, the step where MSBuild finds and understands all the inputs to your project's build. To actually *do* anything we need to go a step further and execute one of the build targets:

```
> dotnet build -getItem:Compile -target:Compile
{
"Items": {
"Compile": [
{
"Identity": "Program.cs",
...
},
{
"Identity": "obj\\Debug\\net10.0\\TestConsole.GlobalUsings.g.cs",
...
},
{
"Identity": "obj\\Debug\\net10.0\\.NETCoreApp,Version=v10.0.AssemblyAttributes.cs",
...
},
{
"Identity": "obj\\Debug\\net10.0\\TestConsole.AssemblyInfo.cs",
...
}
]
}
}
```
(Don't get confused by "Compile" appearing twice. We're running the "Compile" *target* and then retrieving the "Compile" *items*; these are two distinct things that just happen to share a name in this example.)

We can see here that in the course of running the target the build created three new "Compile" items to hold the global "usings" and various assembly-level attributes.

#dotnet #msbuild #csharp

So what practical things might you do with `-getProperty` and `-getTarget`?

Say you have some logic to dynamically set the `Version` during a build. If you wanted to check the version you could build the whole project with `dotnet build` and then find and crack open the resulting .dll... or you could run just the target that computes the version and output the result:
```
dotnet build -getProperty:Version -target:ComputeVersion
```
Alternatively you might want to compile a list of your top-level NuGet dependencies. In this case you can loop over all your .csproj files and run:
```
dotnet build -getItem:PackageReference <path_to_csproj>
```

This is potentially useful in any situation where you want to extract structured information from a build that isn't included in the build output, or you don't want to pay the cost of a full build.

#dotnet #msbuild #csharp

What if you want to see the actual code files involved?

```
> dotnet build -getItem:Compile
```

For a new console application this will show a single item:

```
{
"Items": {
"Compile": [
{
"Identity": "Program.cs",
"FullPath": "C:\\Users\\me\\source\\repos\\TestConsole\\TestConsole\\Program.cs",
"RootDir": "C:\\",
"Filename": "Program",
"Extension": ".cs",
"RelativeDir": "",
"Directory": "Users\\me\\source\\repos\\TestConsole\\TestConsole\\",
"RecursiveDir": "",
"ModifiedTime": "2026-06-14 19:57:18.0522787",
"CreatedTime": "2026-06-14 19:57:18.0492830",
"AccessedTime": "2026-06-14 19:57:19.2281805",
"DefiningProjectFullPath": "C:\\Program Files\\dotnet\\sdk\\10.0.204\\Sdks\\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\\targets\\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.DefaultItems.props",
"DefiningProjectDirectory": "C:\\Program Files\\dotnet\\sdk\\10.0.204\\Sdks\\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\\targets\\",
"DefiningProjectName": "Microsoft.NET.Sdk.DefaultItems",
"DefiningProjectExtension": ".props"
}
]
}
}
```

And Program.cs is of course the one file in the project directory.

However, Program.cs is *not* the only C# file that is passed to the compiler when you build!

#dotnet #msbuild #csharp

Similarly, you can get project items with `-getItem`:

```
> dotnet build -getItem:PackageReference
{
"Items": {
"PackageReference": [
{
"Identity": "Errata",
"Version": "0.16.0",
"FullPath": "C:\\Users\\me\\...",
"RootDir": "C:\\",
"Filename": "Errata",
"Extension": "",
"RelativeDir": "",
"Directory": "Users\\me\\...",
"RecursiveDir": "",
"ModifiedTime": "",
"CreatedTime": "",
"AccessedTime": "",
"DefiningProjectFullPath": "C:\\Users\\me\\...\\beta\\beta.csproj",
"DefiningProjectDirectory": "C:\\Users\\me\\...\\beta\\",
"DefiningProjectName": "beta",
"DefiningProjectExtension": ".csproj"
},
{
"Identity": "RadLine",
"Version": "0.10.0",
...
},
{
"Identity": "Spectre.Console",
"Version": "0.55.1",
...
}
]
}
}
```

This gets you all the PackageReference items in your project, including their metadata.

#msbuild #dotnet #csharp

Let's talk about extracting information from MSBuild-based projects, like C# projects (.csproj).

I have no particular reason to do this; I just think it's cool. However, this might be useful to extract information from your build system without needing to run a full build, or as an alternative to having more complicated MSBuild logic to create an output file.

Starting in .NET 8 you can run:

```
dotnet build -getProperty:Foo
```

Instead of running a build, this will output the value of the "Foo" property. For example:

```
> dotnet build -getProperty:TargetFramework
net9.0
```

You can ask for multiple properties, in which case dotnet will return a JSON object:

```
> dotnet build -getProperty:TargetFramework,OutputType
{
"Properties": {
"TargetFramework": "net9.0",
"OutputType": "Exe"
}
}
```

#msbuild #dotnet #csharp

I'm back writing code and talking tech live on Twitch and YouTube. Let's discuss #MSBuild, agents, LLM and more. I've got an announcement about the Blazor Components to share and so much more!

twitch.tv/csharpfritz
https://youtube.com/csharpfritz

Microsoft Build 2026 recap: vision, launches, and top sessions | by Jon Galloway

https://developer.microsoft.com/blog/build-recap

#dotnet #msbuild #azure #ai #github #build2026 #devcommunity

Merge Conflict Episode 518: Windows is Back! New Microsoft AI Coding Models with James Montemagno & Frank Kreuger

https://www.mergeconflict.fm/518

#podcast #windowsdev #ai #softwaredev #devcommunity #msbuild

Dew Drop - June 9, 2026 (#4686)

https://www.alvinashcraft.com/2026/06/09/dew-drop-june-9-2026-4686/

#dotnet #ai #windowsdev #msbuild #csharp #appdev #wwdc #visualstudio #iOS #webdev #cloud #dewdrop

#msbuild was very interesting.

only watched the keynote but at least it wasn't totally 100% AI.

Like to see how they live up to their environmental claims. that would be interesting.

the tech looked good. their LLMs - hmm. let's see. But if they are cheaper, might be worth it.

#ai #microsoft #build

#MSBuild 2026: #Windows :windows: soll sicherer werden | Security https://www.heise.de/news/MS-Build-2026-Windows-soll-sicherer-werden-11316512.html #MSBuild2026 #Microsoft #MSBuild26

This weeks Azure Feeds Newsletter is out! #msbuild

☁️ AzureFeeds - Newsletter
📅 Weekly Update: Saturday May 30 2026 to Saturday June 06 2026

https://azurefeeds.bmeurl.co/13ED63D4

Thanks to the #MSBuild session by Peter Steinberger, I learned that Annoyance-Driven Development is what has actually been powering me all these years!💪

https://slides.jukkan.com/deck/annoyance-driven-development/

Build and ship faster with a developer-optimized Windows experience | Microsoft Build 2026 with Aditya Ramnathkar, Beth Pan & Nikola Metulev

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGrcC737YLo

#windowsdev #devtools #ai #windows #build2026 #msbuild #wsl #terminal #winget